


Treat Yourself

by CloudNineKitty



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, No Plot, Spa Treatments, as if, ha, just a prompto and gladio hangin' out day, just two dudes sitting in a hot tub five feet apart because they're not gay, rated teen for the bulge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 17:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9282488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloudNineKitty/pseuds/CloudNineKitty
Summary: “You saying I have a crush on you, Prom?” Gladio asked in an even tone.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the writing prompt: "I can't believe you talked me into this."
> 
> This is definitely a warm up ficlet. I haven't written anything in so long, and I'm trying to get my flow back with things I've never written before, i.e. one shots. Because I need to not get carried away with plots so much. That's how nothing gets finished.

The last stretch of the drive to Lestallum had been a remarkable scenic route with mountainsides and full green trees. Noctis had been in pleasant enough spirits to pull over anytime Prompto spotted the perfect photo opp, Ignis kept his sarcastic (albeit practical) remarks to a minimum, and Gladiolus was feeling generous enough to entertain Prompto with tales of his military training days. Smooth sailing, not too quiet to make it boring, and plenty of Ignis approved snacks to keep stomachs from protesting.   
  
The parking lot was an open invitation to bound out of the Regalia and stretch out all the kinks and sores from sitting for hours - though Ignis would argue that Prompto didn't do much sitting while they were on the road.   
  
"We-eeee made it! A-live!" Prompto punched the air high above his head. "Now we just gotta find Iris and- whoa! You can see the Disc of Cauthess from here!"   
  
His feet were carrying him to the edge of the parking lot before he could stop himself.   
  
"How can he have all that energy?" Gladiolus asked from a distance behind, voice carrying low.   
  
"No idea…" was Noctis' exhausted reply.   
  
Prompto had to bite the inside of his cheek at that. Yeah, yeah, he was the good ol' life of the party, wasn't he? Always laughing and throwing jokes out like candy. It wasn't easy, but somebody had to do it or these guys would swallow their tongues and roll their eyes out of their skulls in boredom.   
  
He didn't realize he was clenching his fists until he felt his fingernails biting into the palm of his hands through his gloves. Plodding footsteps had him uncurling and plastering on a grin.   
  
"We should go see it up close!" Prompto beamed.   
  
"Won't your camera melt from the heat?" Noctis asked after a yawn.   
  
"Whaaa-t?" Wait, could that happen? "No way!"   
  
"Iris comes first." Gladio interjected.   
  
"Of course, big guy! How could we forget about her? She's a pretty lady after all." Prompto spun around on his toes, leg extending out with all intents and purposes to head in their destination. "Let's go-guh!"   
  
The collar of Prompto's denim vest was snatched up in a large meaty fist, yanking him back a step. Gladio's furrowed brow came into his peripheral, but Prompto didn't dare meet it head on.   
  
"Keep it in your pants, big boy."   
  
Prompto could only give a sheepish grin, appeasing the goliath enough to be released. It wasn't like he was really going to go for the fifteen year old girl - he did have standards, believe it or not!   
  
Finally meeting up with Iris at the hotel, Prompto couldn't help but feel a pull in his chest at the relief that embodied Gladio. He hadn't noticed the anxiety cresting the big guy's forehead before, but now that the crease was gone, it was obvious just how worried Gladio had been. And why wouldn't he be? Besides his duty to the prince, Gladio's sister was the next most important thing in his life. It was really super sweet, in Prompto’s opinion.   
  
Iris clung to Noctis's attentions as they debriefed on the situation in Insomnia. It sounded like utter madness from the way Iris described it. She assured them that many of the citizens from the outer sections made it out safely, including Luna, but the king…   
  
Prompto took a wary glance at Noctis. He hadn't taken the news well when they found out in Galdin Quay, but then again, who would take that news well? Prompto could only imagine what that was like, to go to sleep one night and wake up the next to the rug being yanked out from under you.

The news of Luna's safe departure from the city seemed to help Noctis settle, even if just a little bit.   
  
"Gladdy…about dad…" Iris spoke quietly from where she and Gladiolus sat side by side on one of the beds after they had caught up on details.   
  
Prompto didn't mean to eavesdrop, and he really tried to focus on Ignis's boring drill of going over their itinerary now that they knew what to do next, but he couldn't help but keep an ear on the siblings sitting across from him.   
  
"I'm so sorry…" Iris whispered. She had kept a brave face on since they met with her in the hotel lobby, but the wavering in her voice a dead giveaway to the floodgates threatening to burst.   
  
He really shouldn't be listening to this…   
  
"Iris, no," Gladio wrapped a big arm around the girl's slender shoulders. He practically swallowed her in his side. "He was doing his job. He was the shield of the king, and he fulfilled his duty as that. There wasn't anything you- we could have done."

Ignis and Noctis seemed just fine leaving the siblings to themselves, their own gazes locked on each other as they murmured about responsibilities and decisions. Prompto hadn’t felt this left out since he was a kid. Everyone had something to discuss or contribute to the fall of Insomnia, but Prompto was an outsider, even more so considering...no, he couldn’t think about that right now.

He had to be supportive of his friends; they had just lost their homes, their families. He couldn’t be selfish now.

Gladio and Iris returned to their attention to the others several minutes later, eyes dried and sinuses cleared, and Prompto gave Gladio a tight smile that the man arched an eyebrow at. Right, Prompto hadn’t been a part of that conversation. He pressed his lips together tight and turned away from the amber eyes.

The party, if that was what a group of weary refugees without a city to call home could be called, went on for a couple of hours. Iris was talkative, telling the young men about all the interesting sites and shops and food carts to be found around Lestallum. Noctis looked less than interested, but Prompto pegged that to be his usual aloof demeanor. Prompto, for one, found certain points of topic to be gripping stuff.

Finally, they called it a night, and Gladiolus walked his sister to her room. Ignis and Noctis made quick work of getting ready for bed and settling down, leaving Prompto to lie in the double bed that he’d be sharing with Gladio. 

He tried staying awake for the man’s return, but passed out before there was any sign of him. Gladio was there in the morning, however, batting Prompto’s head with the back of his large paw to wake him.

“Get up, we’re going out.” Gladio ordered, stepping over to the table where his phone was charging. He unlocked the screen and typed something. Damp hair a towel around his neck indicated that he had just showered.

Prompto groaned and squinted at the bed across from him. Noctis was still there, sprawled out on his stomach with a pillow haphazardly resting on his head. Ignis sat on the bed beside him, tying his shoes.

“Ugh, what time is it?” Prompto glanced at the clock. Half past eight, not horribly unreasonable, but growing boys needed their sleep, Prompto would argue, and he was nowhere near done growing! “Noctis, tell them--”

Ignis pressed a finger to his lips, gaze sharp behind glasses. “Let him sleep. We’ll meet back here with him later.”

Prompto frowned. “What? Then why can’t I sleep in, too?”

“Just get up.” Gladio patted Prompto’s calves hidden under the blankets. “I’ll treat you to some cup noodles from that food truck on the main road.”

“Those are your favorite, not mine.” Prompto argued, but got up nonetheless. He pulled on the shirt and pants he had worn the day before, and trudged over to the bathroom to brush his teeth and run his fingers through his hair.

They were outside the hotel in ten minutes, and Prompto glanced behind him at the open doors to the lobby. 

“Wait, Iris isn’t coming with us?”

“What, don’t want to spend time with me and Iggy?” Gladio combated. He always had some bait lined up for Prompto, and Prompto always fell for it.

“Uh! That’s not what I said!” Prompto whined. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to wonder where their friends were, was it? “I just don’t get why I’m the only one that has to get up early!”

“We’re up too, aren’t we?” Gladiolus grinned (obnoxiously, Prompto would add).

“ _ Not _ what I  _ meant _ !” Jeezus, why was Gladio being so aggravating this morning? Of course they would always banter back and forth in the car or while camping, but it was too damn early for this!

An enormous arm encircled Prompto’s neck, tugging him further out into the square in front of the hotel. Gladio was truly a beast of a man, all muscle and height. What the hell did they feed him as a child? “Tell you what,” the goliath said with a laugh. “No more complaints, and we can go do something you wanna do.”

Prompto bit the inside of his cheek, already about to argue that he wasn’t complaining. He attributed the flush on his cheeks to the body heat rolling off Gladio in waves. No wonder the guy never wore a shirt…

“Yeah, okay,” Prompto allowed himself to be dragged along. “But whatever I want!”

“Whatever you want.” Gladio confirmed with a hum that was far too pleasing to the ears.

The shopping felt like it dragged on and on, but anytime Prompto felt the itch to say something, or groan, he’d grit his teeth together and adjust his hold on the bags of groceries he was holding. He wasn’t sure where Ignis planned on cooking tonight, seeing as they were at a hotel - wait, unless they would be camping tonight? Why? Why would they leave the soft hotel beds so soon, just to sleep on nothing more than a thin sleeping bag as cushion between them and a hard rock?

No, he couldn’t say anything, because...well, he really wanted to go do something fun, or interesting. A lot of the things Iris had told them last night sounded like a blast. There were power plant tours, a haunted district of Lestallum, and even an arcade! He just wished Noctis was here, so all four of them could hang out together.

“Y’know, I said no more complaints. Doesn’t mean you can’t talk.” Gladio needled him. He had a sack of potatoes resting on his broad shoulder, looking unbothered by the weight.

“Perhaps he has nothing else to say but complaints.” Ignis commented, rubbing salt into the wound.

Prompto plastered on a smile a little too quickly. “Just thinking about what we’re going to do after this. Maybe Noct will be awake by the time we’re done here.”

“I doubt his royal highness will be joining us today.” Gladio glanced around the market place, but quickly returned his gaze to Prompto before the young man could follow suit.

“Huh? Why not?”

“Just a hunch.”

Prompto didn’t like Gladio’s hunches - they always turned out to be right.

After what felt like hours of shopping for food and medical equipment, getting the soles of Ignis’s shoes fixed, and having weapons sharpened, Ignis finally declared their errands over and done with.

“Ya-hoo! Now we can go do my thing!” Prompto cheered, pumping two fists in the air.

“Yes, yes. You two have fun.” Ignis waved them off with a sigh.

Prompto’s face fell dramatically. “What? You’re not coming, Iggy?”

“I’ve had my fill for the day. I’m going to go see about borrowing the hotel’s kitchen so I can make us all a balanced meal tonight, so don’t come back late.”

There was no arguing with Ignis. But that meant it would just be him and Gladiolus, and that was… Prompto peered up at the man beside him. Gladio looked back with an owlish visage.

“What, don’t want to hang out with lil ol’ me?”

“Not what I said!” Prompto wailed.

The two men promised Ignis they’d be back before dark and set back out into the streets of Lestallum. They had learned that only women work at the plant, leaving elderly women, men, and children to be the only city citizens meandering about during daylight. It left the streets empty enough to walk in silence side by side.

“Have any idea where we’re heading?” Gladio asked, nodding to a polite gentleman that waved at them as they passed.

“Still thinking on it.” Prompto murmured, glancing around at the multitude of colorful hanging signs outside of shops. He wanted to find the perfect place…

“I thought you had it all figured out. You made it seem like we were gonna have a grand old time today.” Gladio continued to egg him on, and Prompto hated to admit it was working.

Prompto huffed. “Just give me a sec…”

His eyes spotted a crude interpretation painted of the Disc of Cauthess on a wooden sign--

The giant didn’t stop. “We could be out here all day before you can make up your mind, and next thing you know, it’ll be dark-”

“There! We’re going in there!” Prompto yelped, trotting ahead and opening the faded wooden door to the shop with more enthusiasm than intended. He waited as Gladio stared up at the sign with a cocked eyebrow before strolling in past him. It wasn’t until the door shut behind them that Prompto noticed the sweet smell of incense burning, and chimes playing from an old radio by the window.

A wrinkled and tanned woman with an orange scarf wrapped around her head approached them with a meek smile and shivering hands, a silver ring on each bony finger. “Welcome to the Disc of Cauthess Spa, gentlemen. Have you come to experience the spiritual and physical healing that the meteor has blessed our earth with?”

Shit, shit! Prompto had thought this was a tour guide office for the Disc of Cauthess - he hadn’t read the sign! No wonder Gladio had just stood there initially, he must have thought Prompto had lost his damn mind.

“Uh, n-no…” Prompto stammered at the same time as Gladio giving a cheerful, “Sure have.”

Prompto gawked at the taller man, but Gladio only patted his back twice before following the woman to a straw coffee table covered in pamphlets.

“We offer several means of healing the soul and body. Is there something in particular you had in mind?”

Gladio’s enormous smile left his amber eyes bright and awake - Prompto had never seen him so amused. “We do a lot of physical labor. Our bodies definitely need some healing.”

He was actually going along with this? Unbelievable!

“Prompto, come take a look.”

They were actually going through with this…

They ended up agreeing on a mud bath, with the ashes of the meteor mixed in with it to help regenerate skin cells and heal callouses. They had to shower in a communal stall with only a waist high wall between them and freezing cold water spraying from the shower head. At least the soap smelled nice, something akin to grapefruits and basil. Ignis would have been able to pinpoint it. 

Prompto made sure to keep his right arm out of Gladiolus’s line of vision, but the man seemed keen on giving the younger man his privacy, seeing as if he  _ did _ turn to look at Prompto, the half wall would be useless.

They had been left too small white speedos to wear into the bath, the things barely able to fit over their asses, let alone their--

Shit, Prompto didn’t mean to look at Gladio’s bulge, and now it was seared in his brain thanks to the material leaving nothing to the imagination.

“I’ll head in first.” Prompto volunteered, hand around his wrist as he walked over to the five rectangular dips in the floor filled with a grayish muck. He sank down into the second to last one, leaving four others open. Shame...they really could have brought everyone.

The mud had a gritty consistency that made his skin itch, but he just made sure to completely submerge himself to his chin, and lifted his left hand to see just how clingy the stuff was. It covered him like a second skin - a lumpy, grey skin at that. He looked like some kind of swamp monster with this stuff on him.

Gladio sank into the last tub on Prompto’s left, grimacing at the texture, probably. It was deep enough that the mud stopped at his chest. “Not...so bad.” He muttered.

“I wish I had brought my camera in here.” Prompto snickered.

“It would have sunk to the bottom of this mud pit.” Gladio retorted. He leaned back against the wall where a towel had been rolled up at the edge to act as a pillow. “How long are we supposed to stay in this thing?”

“For as long as your body needs.” The elderly woman said as she entered the room from an employees only door, carrying a chipped clay bowl and a flat stick in her hands. Prompto flushed at the intrusion, covering his hands over his crotch even though there was no way for the granny to see anything. “I have brought you a Disc of Cauthess face mask, to clear your pores and renew your flesh.”

“Uh, no thanks.” Gladio said immediately.

Prompto tried not to laugh at the mental image of Gladio with a face mask on and cucumber slices over his eyes. “Oh, don’t let your fragile masculinity get in the way of clearing your pores. You need it, Gladio. Your face is always oily.”

“What?” Gladio snarled. “No it isn’t.”

“It is! You’re always shiny! This could help.” Prompto lay his head on his own rolled up towel, offering his face to the old woman. “We payed good gil for this. Might as well get the full experience.”

She knelt beside him with cracking joints and plastered the mask on his face with the wooden stick until covered him from his forehead to his neck. She moved on to Gladio who agreed to it with a begrudging grunt, avoiding spreading any in his beard.

Before she left them to their own devices, she lit several candles around the room, then turned off the lights.

“Uh!” Prompto sat up, but she had already closed the door. He turned to look at Gladio with wide blue eyes encircled by muck.

“Well, isn’t this romantic.” Gladio spoke, deep and gruff. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

“What! I can’t believe  _ you _ talked  _ me _ into this!” Prompto argued. “I thought this was just a tourist office. We didn’t have to stay!”

“Yeah, but then we would have never found the cure for my giant, oily pores.”

Prompto blinked. Was...he pouting? “Dude, does it bother you that much? I didn’t mean to make fun of you.” Gladio was silent for several long seconds, and upon closer inspection, the corners of his lips were twitching with barely contained amusement. “ _ Dude _ !”

“Heh heh,” Gladio laughed a bit too loud. “You’re so easy to mess with.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve been awful today. Why don’t you cut me some slack?” Prompto shifted to the edge of his pool so he could lean his arms on the side and glare with all intents and purposes to intimidate. “You’re as bad a bully with a crush.”

He didn’t realize his choice of words until they already left his mouth. Gladio seemed unphased.

“You saying I have a crush on you, Prom?” Gladio asked in an even tone, no hint of suggestiveness.

Prompto wasn’t saying that at all, because that would be crazy and unthinkable. Gladiolus was important and the king’s sworn shield and-- no...no, that had nothing to do with it. Gladio was kind, kind to everyone, and he didn’t make exceptions, so he never really treated Prompto different from Ignis or Noct. If he did like Prompto, he never made it obvious, and yeah, they had known each other for a while now, but there was no way Gladiolus actually knew the real Prompto - Prompto made sure that no one knew the real him.

So he couldn’t like Prompto. He didn’t know Prompto.

“Yeah right,” Prompto scoffed, subconsciously placing his left hand over his right wrist. “You wouldn’t be able to handle all of this.”

“All of what? There’s barely anything to you.” Gladio also made his way over to his side of the pool, mimicking Prompto’s pose with his arms.

“There’s plenty to me! I’m the whole package, baby.”

“A whole package of air.” Gladio jabbed.

Prompto scoffed. Yeah, Gladio couldn’t like him. He didn’t see Prompto as anything more than a skinny, hyperactive gunner. “You won’t be saying that tonight when I kick your ass at King’s Knight.”

“Such big talk for a little man. Wonder if you’ll be able to back it up.” Gladio grinned.

Prompto raised his brows, and realized the mask was drying on his face, making it stiff. “We can make it interesting, if you want.”

“A wager, yeah.” Gladio seemed to be on the same trail of thought. “Loser has to do whatever the winner wants.”

“Typical tough guy talk.” Prompto huffed, but he already knew that if - no, when - he won, he’d make Gladiolus do all his chores next time they were camping. “You’re on, big guy.”

“Don’t back out when I win.” Gladio beamed.

“You wish!”

Amber eyes held his for longer than was comfortable, and Prompto was grateful for the mud mask covering his flushed complexion. The candlelight made Gladio’s eyes glint and shine in a way Prompto had never seen before, and he was suddenly aware of the pounding in his chest.

“Your face isn’t that oily.” Prompto offered as a way to break the silence that had suddenly overcome them.   
  
“I know.”

“But your pores are huge.”

“Do me a favor, Prom, and shut up.”

**Author's Note:**

> Aren't you glad you just wasted your time reading this?


End file.
